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Staff Profiles

Dr Sarah Campbell

Senior Lecturer in Irish/British History

  • Telephone: +44 (0) 191 208 7842
  • Address: School of History, Classics and Archaeology,
    Newcastle University,
    Newcastle upon Tyne,
    Ne1 7RU

    Office 2.35 Armstrong
Background

Introduction

I am a historian of modern Ireland and Britain, focusing on the conflict in Northern Ireland. My research interests include activism, social movements, oral history, protest, memory, and political violence. I joined the School of History, Archaeology and Classics in 2012. I previously lectured in the School of History and Archives in University College Dublin. 

Education

PhD in History, University College Dublin (2010)

MA in Modern Irish history, University College Dublin (2006)

BA (Hons) in History and Philosophy, University College Dublin (2003)


Roles and Responsibilities

Jan 2019-present: Impact coordinator for History

2016-2018: Marketing coordinator for HCA

2015: Peer mentoring

2012-2013: History Research Seminar coordinator



Awards/Funding

Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS), Government of Ireland scholarship 2007-2010 (€48,000)

Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) bursary, 2012 (€2,000)

Faculty Research Fund, Early career, 2014 (£2,520)

Newcastle Institute of Social Renewal, 2016 (£1,250)

Faculty Impact Fund (ESRC and Faculty), 2019 (£12, 610.60) 



Research

My current research is a book project on student activism at Queen's University Belfast (QUB) between the 1960s and the 1980s. The book traces the role that students at QUB played as ‘agitators for change’ in the long ’68 years, noting the unique position that Queen’s University plays in Northern Ireland as a stepping-stone to the establishment. It claims that the university offered an important space where politics of the conflict, as well as other important social and economic issues, were debated and discussed, often in quite radical and innovative ways, at a time when very little formal politics was happening in the region. The book will be published by Liverpool University Press in 2027.


My research interests also include nineteenth- and twentieth century Irish history, Anglo-Irish relations, political violence, oral history, social movements and protest, memory, and social and cultural history. My first monograph, Gerry Fitt and the SDLP: 'In a minority of one', was published in 2015 and examines the heterogeneity and evolution of nationalism in Northern Ireland during the 1970s. Using a wide range of archival sources, including government papers, party papers, newspapers, material in the Northern Ireland Political Collection, and oral history, the research examined the constitutional and non-constitutional tactics of the minority community in Northern Ireland, as well as British government responses, to investigate the changing dynamics of conflict in this formative decade of the ‘Troubles’, and outlined how the minority community attempted to articulate an alternative political vision for themselves.


I have also written on different aspects of the history of Northern Ireland including Protestant identities and collective action in the 1970s and 1980s, which takes a social movement approach to explore how the contingent and ever-evolving political contexts, opportunities and threats shaped the trajectory of the Troubles. I have published in Irish Historical Studies, Irish Political Studies and have contributed to several edited collections on the ideology and social dynamics of the SDLP, Anglo-Irish relations, the ethnic-religious character of the state, and the nature of Irish nationalism, which is also the focus of my undergraduate and postgraduate teaching. 


The North-East is a growing hub for Irish history, and at Newcastle University we have a cross-disciplinary and dynamic Irish Studies community with strong links to the Tyneside Irish Centre. I would welcome postgraduate research students in any area of twentieth century Irish history, particularly the conflict in Northern Ireland. I would also welcome students interested in social movements, protest, memory, and/or oral history. 


Current PhD Students

Isabel Thomas (NuAcT Music), 'The Music Histories of Working Men's Clubs' (third supervisor)


Previous PhD Students:

Jack Hepworth (REA funded), 'The Heterogeneity and Evolution of Irish Republicanism, c.1969-c.1994' (viva in 2019)

John Bagnall, 'Britain and the Falklands Crisis: International Perspectives, 1982-1990' (viva in 2021)

Teaching


Semester 1 (2024-2025)

HIS1100 Evidence and Argument (seminar leader)

HIS1102: History Lab (contributor)

HIS2219 Oral History and Memory (Module Leader)


Semester 2 (2024-2025)

HIS3232 Civil Rights and Armalites: Northern Ireland since 1969 (module leader)

HIS8123 Oral History and Public History (module leader)


Whole Year: HIS3020 Dissertations

Publications